Questions from a Newbie:

[Freezycream]

Hey all! So I’ve been following TiTS for a while now and it’s just recently that I’ve started seriously playing it, and just from the few hours I’ve been on it it’s already my favourite adult game of all-time!!!! I just have a few newbie questions though because I made a little mistake and I’m curious if it's alright to ask:

1) When a transformative item has a few specific changes, can you decide which effects you want to have and not have? (I wanted my character to be androgynous + chubby but I chose thickset not realising that it meant big and muscly, so I’m looking into buying Estrobloom and then ManUp from Sera on Tavros Station! However those two items also have other side effects I don’t want, so that’s why I’m wondering. I could probably just restart the game though as I’ve only just arrived at the beginning planet for now)

2) If you’re in a relationship with a character, does something happen to that relationship when you have sex with another person or go into a relationship with that other person?

And lastly, 3) Does real-world time affect the game in any way and does time pass in the game if you’re just idle in real-life?

Thanks very much for any answers and hopefully my questions made some sense!!!

UPDATE: Thanks to your guys' advice and help, I saved my game before taking any transformative items and tried Estrobloom from Sera! It was then that I realised it isn't a cluster of effects that happens but rather one or two effects that are completely randomised. (although it being random was something I was already told) Luckily I got the intended effects and features I wanted anyhow, as well as some great advice to keep in mind in general so thank you so so much for the help!!!!

 

[sumgai]

1)Only a handful of TFs have options that you can select the effects from. Lip Tease and Pickmentation come to mind. The others are luck of the draw. Advice: Save, consume. Dislike result, reload and try again.

2)Nothing. But it might be a good idea to say up front that you're into poly.

3)Nope. Game time is game time, real life time is real life time. Feel free to take your time. Except on the Tarkus main quest and Saendra's second quest. Those are timed in game.

 

[Steevee]

1. No, the number of Effects, and which ones you get are random.

2. Not in most cases, no

3. No

 

[Freezycream]

1)Only a handful of TFs have options that you can select the effects from. Lip Tease and Pickmentation come to mind. The others are luck of the draw. Advice: Save, consume. Dislike result, reload and try again.

2)Nothing. But it might be a good idea to say up front that you're into poly.

3)Nope. Game time is game time, real life time is real life time. Feel free to take your time. Except on the Tarkus main quest and Saendra's second quest. Those are timed in game.

Thank you very much for your answer and for clearing that up! ^w^ In that case, are there any items or routes from the beginning you would recommend if I wanted my character to be chubby and androgynous?

 

[sumgai]

No problem.

You can use Man Up or Twink Ease to effect your masculine/feminine score. The food at Bunny Buns hosted by Ilaria on Tarvos can alter your weight.

Save up 10k credits for a life time access at the Ten Ton Gym. Save your stat points. Talk to Syri about books to raise Int. Edit: may have to deal with horny dickgirl if you go this way, not sure what you're into or not.

 

[TheShepard256]

3) Does real-world time affect the game in any way

Actually, it does to a certain extent. By default, some events only occur, or are much more common, during certain times of the real-world year; most notably the Christmas and Halloween periods. Using the 'tistheseason' cheat code will allow you to change the behaviour of these events between Default (only occurs around the time of the specified holiday), Always On (can always occur, subject to 'once per year' limitations if applicable) and Always Off (will never occur) for each seasonal period.
To use cheats, open up the Codex, go to Options -> Console, type out the appropriate code, hit Execute, then go back out of the Codex. You can also just type them out anywhere in the game, but you can't see what you're typing, and some letters will interrupt/reset typing the code if the button they're hot-keyed to activates something.

 

[Theron]

If you want to be 'chubby' you want high Thickness, low Tone.

Twink-ease can grant 'Perma-Cute' which locks your Femininity at 20 (I think). Catnip can grant the 'Androgny' perk, which locks you at 0-ish Femininity.

If typing Cheats outside of the Console, you can also keep Shift pressed, which will prevent any keypresses from activating menus or items. Console is your best option, though. For completeness sake, you can also type in cheats at V-Ko on Mhen'ga via 'CustomInput'.

If you want to maximize your stats, you can also recruit Ramis, who will let you train Reflexes and Willpower at the same time. She also lets you train Physique. You still have to use the Ten Ton Gym for Aim, though. Working out increases Tone, so you'll have to deal with that afterward.

The reason you want to train at the Gym or with Ramis is those have diminishing returns. Your level up stat points are always 1 to 1, so if you bank enough, you'll reach a point where you can max out your stats much more easily. This will become more important later as the level cap increases.

 

[Theron]

50-ish you mean.

Depends on how you're counting. If I recall, it's a 0 to 100 scale (so 50 is the midpoint), but is displayed as 0 in the Codex.

 

[Freezycream]

If you want to be 'chubby' you want high Thickness, low Tone.

Twink-ease can grant 'Perma-Cute' which locks your Femininity at 20 (I think). Catnip can grant the 'Androgny' perk, which locks you at 0-ish Femininity.

If typing Cheats outside of the Console, you can also keep Shift pressed, which will prevent any keypresses from activating menus or items. Console is your best option, though. For completeness sake, you can also type in cheats at V-Ko on Mhen'ga via 'CustomInput'.

If you want to maximize your stats, you can also recruit Ramis, who will let you train Reflexes and Willpower at the same time. She also lets you train Physique. You still have to use the Ten Ton Gym for Aim, though. Working out increases Tone, so you'll have to deal with that afterward.

The reason you want to train at the Gym or with Ramis is those have diminishing returns. Your level up stat points are always 1 to 1, so if you bank enough, you'll reach a point where you can max out your stats much more easily. This will become more important later as the level cap increases.

Thank you so very much for the advice on how on what you can do to increase your thickness! I personally got the intended effects I wanted from just taking three Estroblooms but I'll most definitely still keep what you said in mind when going to the Ten Ton Gym and such! ^u^

 

[Freezycream]

No problem.

You can use Man Up or Twink Ease to effect your masculine/feminine score. The food at Bunny Buns hosted by Ilaria on Tarvos can alter your weight.

Save up 10k credits for a life time access at the Ten Ton Gym. Save your stat points. Talk to Syri about books to raise Int. Edit: may have to deal with horny dickgirl if you go this way, not sure what you're into or not.

Oh I am and I'm actually looking forward to chatting to Syri so it's all good! Would you mind telling me more about the relationship part though and if anything does come from having sex with others whilst in a relationship?

 

[TheShepard256]

Oh I am and I'm actually looking forward to chatting to Syri so it's all good! Would you mind telling me more about the relationship part though and if anything does come from having sex with others whilst in a relationship?

Polyamory and open relationships are a common part of the TiTS universe; outside some enemies who can Bad End you, none of the sexable NPCs care if you have sex with others* (even if it's their sibling you're fucking), and some of them have sex with others themselves. The only time I can think of where having sex with two NPCs leads to conflict is not because of anything to do with sex, but because one of them (Kara) has a bounty on her head, and the other (Shade) is looking to collect and has personal reasons for doing so. The same thing goes for more intimate relationships; some sexable NPCs are already in relationships with each other (e.g. Anno & Kaede, Ogram & Amma, Chiara & Rian), and there's nothing stopping you from having multiple lovers without any negative consequences.
*In the future, there may be one exception to this: if/when Astra's solo content is written, chances are having sex with her will be mutually exclusive with having sex with her mother, Shade.

If anything, having sex with multiple different people doesn't remove options, it only opens them up - to threesomes, mostly, though there are a few quests and NPCs gated behind sex with related NPCs. A good example of all three is that having sex with Anno is required to gain access to her recruitment quest, as well as a threesome with her girlfriend Kaede, which is the only way to meet her outside a seasonal event that requires fucking either Anno or Syri.

 

[Savin]

Why would that be? They're banging too...

Astra and Shade are not banging :V

 

[Starstruck]

Astra and Shade are not banging :V

Oh whoops, confused father for daughter. Yeah i can see some exclusivity there.

Yup, if you told Shade about the probe I don't think she would approve... no matter what Steele's relationship status with her is set to.
If you didn't tell her I imagine she'd probably get jealous

So then the only way Steele would get to bang Astra... is if Kara kills Shade on Myrellion, which is really all kinds of effed up.

 

[TheShepard256]

Yup, if you told Shade about the probe I don't think she would approve... no matter what Steele's relationship status with her is set to.
If you didn't tell her I imagine she'd probably get jealous

So then the only way Steele would get to bang Astra... is if Kara kills Shade on Myrellion, which is really all kinds of effed up.

Actually, the piece of text from which I assumed Astra would be sexable in her solo content comes from the 'friend Shade' path; specifically, the tooltip for first meeting the two on Uveto:

In which an ignorant Shade tries to play matchmaker between Cool Rich Dude and her daughter.

So I assume friend!Shade is fine with Steele x Astra, and even supports it to some degree.

 

[Starstruck]

I was talking about lover!Shade though. xD

 

[TheShepard256]

I was talking about lover!Shade though. xD

Really?

Yup, if you told Shade about the probe I don't think she would approve... no matter what Steele's relationship status with her is set to.
If you didn't tell her I imagine she'd probably get jealous

So then the only way Steele would get to bang Astra... is if Kara kills Shade on Myrellion, which is really all kinds of effed up.

The bolded parts are the ones that implied, at least to me, that you were talking about Shade in general (the former) and not about lover!Shade in particular (the latter; if you encounter lover!Shade in KQ2, she doesn't fight you, so she can't get killed by hard!Kara).

 

[Starstruck]

I meant that Shade is kinda starved for the affection of a lover and I'm not sure that she'd be willing to share Steele with her daughter of all people regardless of whether lover!Shade present in KQ2 and forgives Steele for deceiving her later, or if she's made a beeline for Uveto to clear her head after learning the truth about her lineage and later locked back into !lover mode instead of !sister.

 

[TheShepard256]

I meant that Shade is kinda starved for the affection of a lover and I'm not sure that she'd be willing to share Steele with her daughter of all people regardless of whether lover!Shade present in KQ2 and forgives Steele for deceiving her later, or if she's made a beeline for Uveto to clear her head after learning the truth about her lineage and later locked back into !lover mode instead of !sister.

Ah, I understand your reasoning now. Though it's technically not sharing if Steele and Shade never got together in the first place. To clarify things on my end, I thought Steele x Astra would be exclusive to the path where Steele is friends with Shade but also neither lovers nor siblings with her; in that case, Shade might never realise she's love-starved.